A Massachusetts woman gained two long-lost sisters through a DNA test — then tried to net a fortune when she sued them a month later over a malpractice settlement involving their dad.
Carmen Thomas, 28, took a 23andMe DNA test in February, 2023 and learned she had two biological sisters, Kali and Abigail Brown, whose father, Joe, died in 2018 from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm.
Joe was 43 when he was admitted to Salem Hospital that January after complaining of pain spreading from his upper abdomen to his chest and back, according to court filings.
After Joe spent nearly an entire day of pain and struggling to breathe, doctors determined he was suffering from an aneurysm. But it was too late to save him, and he died the next day.
Kali, Abigail and their mother, Kristin, sued the hospital, claiming its failure to diagnose Joe in a timely fashion cost precious hours that led to his death.
A jury agreed and awarded the grieving family a whopping $28.8 million in April 2023 — a month after Thomas contacted Kali hoping to introduce herself to her newly discovered half sisters.
Once Thomas found out about the settlement, she sued her half sisters, hoping for a payout.
In Thomas’ lawsuit against the family, she emphasized what appeared to be a joyous reunion between all of them a month before the settlement, including photos taken when they met.
But the Browns said in their opposition filing that Abigail and Kali were actually “very upset and hesitant” to meet with Thomas but went against their gut instincts out of kindness.
The sisters quickly regretted their gracious act when Thomas grew “very assertive and possessive” of the family from nearly the very beginning, according to a legal filing.
The Browns’ lawyer, Joseph Lipchitz, wrote that Thomas “attempted to prey on the family financially and emotionally by demanding that they pay for her gas, food, and alcohol,” disturbingly claiming that she would even threaten to hurt herself if they didn’t respond to her messages.
Then once Thomas learned of the settlement, everything quickly unraveled, he said.
“Plaintiff’s gambit of attempting to obtain an injunction to freeze the assets of a grieving family is not only meritless, as a matter of law, it should been seen as an afront to this Court,” he wrote.
Lipchitz said the family was stunned by the suit.
“The death of their father was extraordinarily traumatic, as you can imagine. That was compounded by this putative heir all of a sudden showing up and demanding money,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
The sisters made the decision to cease contact with Thomas in early April — even saying in a court filing that they have reason to doubt the alleged family connection because Thomas’ mother never came forward to say she had a relationship with Joe Brown.
Lipchitz said that eventually, the case “was resolved favorably” for his clients — in part due to Thomas’ claim coming too long after her alleged father’s death.
Once the premiere name in home DNA tests, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, sparking concerns about how the one-time Silicon Valley darling would safeguard the personal data of its 15 million customers.
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